Consequence of Symmetry
by nottonyharrison
Summary: Hermione Granger is a stickler for timing. Appeased by symmetry and accomplishment. So why when all these things line up, does it throw her entire world off its axis? Part of the 'Modal Realism in Practise' alternate universe.


**Title:** Consequence of Symmetry

**Genre:** Angst/Romance/AU

**Warnings:** Language, Adultery

**Pairings: **Hermione/Scorpius(adult), Hermione/Draco

**A/N: **Please don't be put off by the Hermione/Scorpius aspect of this, give it a go as you may be pleasantly surprised!

Week two submission for the Malfoy Manor fic war. Another huge thanks to LWalters5 for betaing at such short notice.

******Disclaimer:** All Publicly recognizable characters, setting, etc are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in now way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

…**...**

**Consequence of Symmetry**

…**...**

"I thought I saw you sneaking up here."

Hermione ignored the voice coming from the small trapdoor behind her, and instead kept her eyes on the flashing that lit up the midnight sky.

"Are you okay?"

She ran a hand through her hair, tugging roughly as her fingers reached the ends. Sighing she leaned further forward and wrapped her arms around her legs, resting her chin on the turquoise chiffon that draped over her bent knees.

"The candles were rather beautiful, shame you missed them." Her voice was soft and barely audible over the crackle of fireworks.

Crouching down he laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. "You need to stop blaming yourself. It wasn't your fault, and you know it."

She let out a bark of harsh, mirthless laughter and shook her head gently, head still tilted towards the display. "You've known me for all of five days, half of which you've spent in a padded cell freaking out about... well, everything. You really think you should be giving me advice on rational thought?" She finally tilted her head towards him and smiled a little as he chuckled, nodding his head in silent agreement.

"Next time you turn up in a parallel universe where your dad is married to a hot younger version of your former professor, I challenge you not to freak out."

Throwing her head back she laughed in earnest. Dropping her arms so her hands rested on the tiled roof she stretched out her legs and laid back on the rough surface, still shaking a little with the last vestiges of her amusement.

Moving from his crouching position he sat, mirroring her hunched posture from moments earlier, his Muggle tuxedo jacket stretching over his broad back. "Did you honestly think it was me coming through that caused the earthquake?"

She stiffened and sighed, sitting back up and scratching at a small chip in one of the roofing tiles with a short fingernail, not caring about damaging the polish that matched the colour of her dress. "Yeah, I did."

"It wasn't, just so you know."

She let out another whoosh of breath and turned her head towards him. "That hasn't been definitively proven yet."

"It's never going to be definitively proven. That's like saying you can't say with one hundred percent certainty that the world isn't going to end tomorrow."

"Five days ago the world _did_ end for two hundred and twenty thousand people."

"That's beside the point."

"I know it wasn't me messing with the veil that did it, Ma- _Scorpius_. It's just hard to get the idea out of my head."

"From what da- _Draco_ tells me, dwelling on what _might be_ isn't exactly your usual style."

"It's not." She scratched her head and looked back towards the now smoke filled haze above the London Eye. Jets of sparks shot from the enormous wheel and she smiled. "This is the first time they've ever actually shot the fireworks off that monstrosity, you know."

"Where I come from, it's not even _there_."

They both fell silent for long minutes as the display reached it's crescendo, almost a full minute of migraine inducing explosions that somehow, despite being both deafening and blinding, managed to induce an almost euphoric sense of hope in its witnesses.

"I hear the eruptions that come out of that Ironbelly Horntail cross you've got stashed in the basement can rival what Muggle London's best just gave us." They looked at one another with blank expressions momentarily before bursting into uncontrollable giggles. Hermione whacked him on the shoulder, eventually calming down enough to respond.

"When it hatched, it coughed out this burst so strong that it singed Malfoy's hair when he was standing on the other side of the dungeon." Scorpius snorted and smirked, tugging on his own short crop.

"I bet he loved that."

"Ended up shaving it all off. He's so vain though he didn't want to take a potion, said he wasn't prepared to risk the split ends from the Fast-Gro." She snickered and adjusted the low neckline of her dress, suddenly self conscious. Studying her cuticles in the dim city light she straightened her back, preparing to head back to the Ministry ball she had abandoned half an hour earlier. "Happy new year, by the way."

"Happy new year, Granger." His voice was husky and low, his eyes focussed on the hazy summer sky as he watched the smoke from the fireworks drift out over the Thames.

She flinched at the name coming from his lips, the tone too similar to that of her partner's to ignore. "Shit, you sound like Draco when you say that."

He grinned, his moment of reverie over as he turned back to her. "Shit, you sound like my old Transfiguration professor when you say _shit_."

"Merlin this is weird, isn't it?" A wry smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and she scratched the side of her head.

"So, so very weird."

"Come on, let's head back to the party. New years is the only time you'll ever see an inebriated Harry Potter attempting to duel the statues in the atrium, despite their refusal to participate." She slapped her hands down on the roof and began to push herself to her feet. A hand gripped her wrist and she paused, glancing curiously at her companion.

Scorpius didn't respond to her silent question, instead tugging her harder towards him, shifting his firm grip from her wrist to her waist he guided her towards him until she was straddling his lap, hands pressed firmly against his chest. She knew she should move away, get back to her partner of the last four years, her partner that looked so much like a slightly younger version of this man who sat beneath her now, everything very nearly identical apart from the eyes that were staring so intently into her own.

"Your eyes are blue." Her voice cracked and she mentally berated herself for saying something so stupid, when she should be accosting him and shoving him away.

"You are so fucking beautiful." His hand slid from her waist up her side, sending a shiver down her spine as it skimmed over the outer limits of her breast, eventually coming to rest tangled in her thick hair. "And I am such a fucking asshole for doing this."

Hermione gulped, her eyes widening as he tugged her closer, hand tightening against her scalp. Before she could stop him, his lips were on hers, not at all tentative but demanding, hard and unyielding and not unlike the first time Draco had kissed her in the Ministry elevator. She couldn't stop herself, she kissed him back, lips parting and tongue escaping to meet his.

As lips lingered and tongues teased, she shoved the heavy guilt to the back of her brain, her slightly tipsy state convincing her to revel in this man who was different but the same. All hard angles and broad shoulders and soft, delicious lips. She whimpered and sucked his lower lip into her mouth, as the hand that wasn't buried in her hair travelled up roughly from her waist, coming to rest against her breast, pressing hard into the soft flesh.

She released his lip with a soft _pop_ and shoved him away, hands slipping out from beneath his jacket and shirt, where they had managed to make their way without her realising. Rolling to his side, she laid back on the tiles, breathing heavily and staring blankly at the hazy London sky.

Neither of them spoke for a long time, both lost in their own thoughts, until a loud bang from behind made them both jump. A hand came over the opening that had been made in the roof, a crystal glass with a finger of scotch sloshing around still clutched in it.

The blonde head that came over the line of the roof next gave them both pause, and even as Draco's mouth formed into a silly drunken grin, Hermione hesitated in her response. After a moment she smiled back, the expression not quite reaching her eyes.

"Well if it isn't my twenty five year old wife and thirty year old son from a different woman in a parallel universe!" He finished clambering up the ladder and eventually managed to crawl over to them, chuckling all the way. Inserting himself in the slightly too small gap between Hermione and Scorpius, he wrapped an arm around each of their shoulders and squeezed. "You know, I'm just now realising that being a wizard can be fucking _weeeeeird_."

Hermione winced internally at the comment that was so similar to her earlier exchange with the identical man that sat on the other side of her partner. She let out a short bark of forced laughter and glared at Scorpius as he did the same. "You can say that again."

The 'older' Malfoy met her eyes over Draco's back and raised an eyebrow.

"I dunno, I think I kind of like it better here."

_End._


End file.
